As cellular networks and coverage around the world grow, the popularity of cellular devices has greatly increased. In particular, usage of Internet based mobile applications on smartphones has experienced a drastic increase as well. However, these applications may tend to consume relatively large amounts of energy compared to the battery life of their corresponding devices. Indeed, many such applications are designed to constantly access the cellular network and/or the Internet (e.g., checking email, updating buddy lists on messaging applications, real-time maps, weather, etc.)
A relatively strong contributor to such large energy drains remains the devices' wireless radios. To this end, wireless radios are typically needed to provide the link between a device and a network so that the aforementioned applications can access the Internet. In some cases, the radios add a factor of five or more times the energy cost of their base devices. Furthermore, though some schemes currently exist to facilitate energy conservation in smartphones, most of these solutions remain device centric rather than application centric. Such solutions are limited in their effectiveness against the backdrop of growing Internet traffic on mobile devices.